Should I use Shadows? – a post by Katie showing when you want to shadow or not.
One Layout Different Shadows – see how different scrapbookers shadow the same layout.
Top Tips — for great shadows:
1) Keep the direction of light the same.
2) Keep the size proportional for the size of the object
3) The bigger the space between the object and its’ shadow, the lighter the shadow will be (the shadow for a piece of paper placed directly on top of another paper will be darker and less opaque than a button or flowers).
4) Play with the blend mode. Using the color burn mode when applying a shadow to acrylic works best.
Some great tutorials for creating perfect drop shadows:
Peppermint’s “Mind Blowing Drop Shadow Tutorial”
Paperclipping Digi Show all about drop shadows:
[audio: http://traffic.libsyn.com/digishow/pds022_ggm.mp3…
Why Would I Want To Warp Or Liquefy Drop Shadows
PSCS – This tutorial changed the way I do drop shadows, love it!
PSCS – using the warp tool
PSCS – using the warp tool (video)
PSCS and PSE – some different settings by Liz
PSE – using liquefy
PSE – using liquefy (video)
Putting a shadow on it’s own layer in PSE (and adding details similar to the warp tool)
Shadowing Acrylic and opaque items (video) PSE
Tips for Great Shadows (any software) and free styles
Tools for Making it FAST
It is always a good idea to know how to do these things in your program, but if you would like some tools to make it easier, they are out there!
Tool 1) Copy/Paste the layer style. Once you have created the perfect drop shadow, you can right click on that layer> copy layer style and then select all other layers and right click>paste layer style. I will often create my paper shadow first and then just increse the distance and size for the larger items after pasting the layer style.
Tool 2) Kristen Rice has some great shadow layer styles.
Tool 3) Flergs has some FREE layer styles to get the look she creates with her drop shadows.
Tool 4) Megan has some FREE layer styles on her blog.